


Endless

by PaladinofFarore



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:41:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24451522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaladinofFarore/pseuds/PaladinofFarore
Summary: Catra hit the floor and she was gone. Her death was quick and painless and almost a relief compared to the agony of Prime's control.When her eyes open again, she finds that Death would like to have a chat with her, and that maybe her way forward is less narrow than she'd thought.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 192





	Endless

She hit the ground, and she was done. The mortal coil unfurled. There was no flash of light. But Catra would swear, many years later when old age had long since turned her fur white as snow, that she heard the beating of wings. 

Catra blinked. 

She felt...utterly normal. Which was strange. Last she could remember, she’d felt...she didn’t know. The overwhelming pressure of His voice, his thoughts, his commands, was nothing but a distant shadow. Her mind was completely her own. She sat up. 

She was on the floor of Prime’s sanctum. 

Around her swarmed more than a dozen clones. A dozen Hordaks, eyes frenzied and arms outstretched….towards Adora, who held _her,_ in her arms. Catra blinked again. Her breath would have caught, but she found that she had not breath at all. There was no warmth in her fingers. There was no cold either. There was nothing. 

**Hey there.**

Catra turned, and she saw her. A woman. 

A woman who Catra knew, somehow _knew_ , despite never laying eyes on her in her life. Like a memory buried deep within the foundations of her mind that had suddenly unearthed itself at just the right moment. She was of average height and slender. She was magicat, but not really. She was beyond such things as species or race. She was all. 

Her fur was paler than bone, and her hair fell in long spikes down her back. 

A symbol, of life, and of something else, hung at her throat. 

And her eyes? Her eyes were endless pools of stars. 

“I’m dead,” Catra said. It wasn’t a question. 

Death nodded. 

**Yup.**

Her voice was not a sound. It was a presence. 

Catra’s face crumpled. With bitterness, regret, pain. She looked to Adora, that fierce, desperate expression marring her beautiful, beautiful face, grey-blue eyes shimmering even in stillness. Catra stood up. It was easy. There was no pain in her legs, her back, her arms. 

It had been for nothing, she realized. She had failed. 

Adora had come anyway. Stubborn and willful and never listening to her. She had come anyway. And then she would die too. Prime would break her, chip her, unleash her upon the-

Catra’s breath did catch then. A strangled, pained feeling rising within her. She looked up to see a pale, clawed hand on her shoulder. 

**Relax,** Death told her. Catra shuddered. 

“Why isn’t anything moving?” she asked. Around them, all was still. Adora, the clones….and her own corpse. 

Death shrugged. 

**I made it stop. Thought I’d stop to chat. That was a hell of a thing you pulled there, giving yourself up for the queen.**

Catra’s eyes fell. She wanted to cry. To scream, to turn and rip the pale woman's throat out. 

“It didn’t matter,” she whispered. “And I didn’t do it for her.”

All for Adora. Only for Adora. At least, she couldn’t help but think, she had stopped herself from killing her. 

**Everything matters,** said Death. **Big things, little things. All counts. Definitely mattered to her.** She pointed towards Adora. **Mattered to Glimmer too. She likes you. Despite everything. Why else would they come?**

“Because they’re idiots!” Catra growled. “I-I told them to stay away! To leave me! And look what it got them!” She shrank to the ground, pulling in her knees. 

Just a few yards away her corpse was draped in Prime’s stark white vestments. The color stabbed at her like a knife. Death paced over and sat cross legged beside her. 

**Two of you get into so much trouble,** said Death. Her gaze was turned towards Adora. The blonde’s ponytail flared out behind her, looking bizarre when frozen in its motion. **I swear. I usually don’t come to things like this. Don’t really need to after all. But I just had to see the show.**

Catra looked up. 

Death’s face was….soft. She’d never pictured Death as a person. Just as some nebulous sword hanging over everything. She’d nearly brought that sword down on everything and everyone, once. Yet this woman, this Death, had a normal face, with soft fur like her own, and eyes filled with more kindness than Catra had thought existed in all the universe. 

“What...what do you mean?” 

**You’re dead, Catra. But you don’t walk with me today, I think,** she shot the young woman a smile. Her teeth were pearly white. Almost cheeky in their brilliance. **That’s up to you of course. But I’m pretty good at calling these things.**

Catra stared. 

“I...I get a choice?” 

Death was not a choice. Death was the endpoint of everything. Of everyone. All you could do was slow it down and hope that whatever fuck ups you’d managed to incur in life didn’t make whatever the rest of your questionable existence just as awful as your life had been. 

She’d meant to die, she realized. 

With the pull of the portals switch. She’d meant to go out in a blaze of rage so bright that it brought everything else crashing down with her. 

She’d meant to die as she sent Glimmer into space. A last gift to Adora. A last chance for her miserable life to mean something at all. A last chance, a last grasp, at the one person she’d ever really cared about getting to go on. 

She...got a choice in the matter?

 **Of course you do,** Death said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. **You’ll come with me. Everyone does eventually. The stars, Prime, Etheria itself, everything comes to me in the end. But today?** A playful glint sparked in the starfield of her gaze. **Not unless you want to. That girl of yours has other plans.**

Everything moved. The clones closed in, hands bared like claws ready to pounce. 

Adora cradled her body. Reverently, gently, but with eyes all but ablaze with determination. Then they were ablaze. Blue-white light crept into them, then stayed there bright as beacons. Her hand rose to the sky, and from her lips erupted a cry. 

“FOR THE HONOR OF GRAYSKULL!” 

She-Ra was reborn then. 

A demigoddess, a being of power and golden light. And Catra, little more than a shade, watched as she fought for her life. For Catra’s life. She saw the shape of her own mask frame Adora’s face. The clones fell, breaking before the princess of power like a tide against the rocks. Within moments they were gone. 

Shattered on the ground like dolls. 

Adora made her declaration to Prime. A stinging, proclamation shot out like an arrow to the heart. And then, she knelt, holding Catra’s body. 

“You’re not done,” she said, voice suffused with emotion. “Not yet.” 

Catra felt the tug. A warm hand on her shoulder, her back, pulling her towards her battered flesh and bones. Then, everything stopped. The warmth paused, still there, but static and not the flowing stream of energy it had been. 

Death tapped at her chin with a finger. 

**Thought so. Her type really like getting in the way of my work.**

The tone she said it with was one of bemused delight. 

“Thats...good?” Catra asked. 

**Of course it is. Fewer dead people is always good.**

Catra gaped. 

“But you’re death,” she said. “That’s like Prime saying its good for fewer planets to be turned to dust. Shouldn’t you be dragging me to hell?” 

Death cocked her head to one side. 

**You think you should go to hell?**

“Of course I should!” Catra screamed. “Of course I fucking should! Where else would I go?!” 

**Why not go home instead?**

Catra blanched. 

“What?”

 **Go home,** Death repeated. **Your road doesn’t end here. Not if you don’t want it to. ‘Drag me to hell!’,** she made wide gestures with her hands, voice shifting into a less than flattering impersonation. **So dramatic. You sounded a bit like Prime’s type there, going on about purity and casting out the darkness. All bullshit. He has no idea how little he knows about the universe. He's in for a big surprise.** Her face softened. **Like I said. Go home. Make things right. That's what you really want, isn't it?**

Catra was shaking now. Tears actually did fall then, despite her lack of eyes and tearducts or a real face to cry on. 

"It can't be that easy." 

Not after everything. There was too much blood on her hands. Too much pain done by them. The fire was all she was good for. 

**Never said anything about easy. I'm the easy way out. Living? That's the hard part. You can feel it already, can't you? Climbing back in your body will be painful. You'll feel all that's happened to you. Feel the weight of all you've done.**

"Then why would I do it?" Catra growled. 

**You know why.**

Catra looked up. Adora....Adora had come for her. There she was, holding her, willing life into her. The tears fell anew. 

"Why did she come?" Catra whispered. 

Death paced forward and came to stand between Catra and the girl she'd loved for as long as she could remember. She put both hands on Catra's shoulders and urged her eyes upward to meet hers. A pair of hetero-chromatic eyes found a pair that went on forever. 

**Can I tell you a little secret?** Death asked quietly. Catra didn't reply, so Death went on. **Two secrets, really.** **You won't remember either when you come to, but I hope the sentiment stays.** **Hell is something you carry with you, not a place you go. What happens after all of this? Not my jurisdiction. That part is up to you. You can torture yourself for what's happened before. Set your soul ablaze forever as punishment. Or, you can stand. You can look it all in the eye and tell it who's boss. Be better. Be your own salvation.** She squeezed Catra's shoulders. Her grip was firm and devoid of warmth and cold alike. **Secret number two. You know why Adora came? Well, I like to talk a big game. All things comes to me in the end. Every person every place every thing. I was there when the first living being breathed its last and I'll be there when the last star burns out and its time to close up shop. But even with all of that, I can only claim to be the second most powerful force in the universe.**

**Never, not once, will I ever defeat love.**

Catra felt the pulse, the pull, of the light guiding her back to her body. The power of She-Ra urging her to live again. Love...

"She loves me?" 

The words were so quiet that they were all but inaudible. They were a prayer. A hopeful, achingly hopeful plea. For as long as she could remember it had been a simple truth that whatever she felt meant nothing. That Adora could never feel the same. 

**So much so that she's handing me my ass to save you.** **I couldn't take you now if I wanted to.**

Catra made a decision. She let a smile come to her lips. Death returned it. 

"I never thought Death would be so...nice." 

**I'm not nice,** Death told her solemnly. **I'm not kind, I'm not cruel, I am.**

"You'll come for me again?" 

She glanced at her body. With her luck, she'd come back to life, only to be smacked down dead by something incredibly stupid. 

**Eventually.**

"...thank you," Catra said. She took a step towards her body. Towards pain and heartache and the atonement for all that she'd done. Death had made her soft, she realized. The weight of it dulled the anger, the rage and the hurting. She was going to take all of that on again. She would be a mess again. A half monster who hated herself with every fiber of her being. She looked up at the face of the beautiful, idiotic blonde that haunted her every time her eyes closed. A price worth paying.

 **Don't thank me,** said Death. **Beat me. I love to lose. Beat me, and when we do meet again, tell me the story. It'll be a great one.**

Catra took a shaky step forward, time moved on, and she lived again. 

Decades later, when she was white and widowed and so very tired, she woke to find Death sitting on the edge of her bed. 

**Was it worth it?**

”Yeah,” Catra said. “You could’ve told me Angella was alive you know.” That had been a pain in the ass to deal with. 

**Is it my job to keep track of missing angels? You wouldn’t have remembered anyway. You ready to go?**

”Yes,” Catra said. She got up, her legs didn’t ache anymore, she felt awake for the first time in ages. She reached out and took Deaths hand. 

“Hey, Catra,” Adora greeted her. 

Death had vanished. Her hand replaced by the one Catra had held all her life.

”Hey Adora.”

**Author's Note:**

> Death of the Endless is a character from Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics. She's also the best character from them.


End file.
